Coconut Rice Cake

(Baonghean) -Passing the top of Dua slope (in hamlet 3, Tuong Son commune, Anh Son district, Nghe An), one cannot help but know about the specialty of gai cake, a traditional craft passed down from our ancestors, which today's generation has developed into a delicious cake brand, attracting the market.

To make a gai cake, you have to go through many elaborate steps. Dried banana leaves, good quality sticky rice, green beans and old coconut meat, good quality sugar and molasses. Especially the main ingredient is the gai leaves. Choose medium-sized gai leaves (not too old or too young), remove the fibers, cook for about 10 hours, scoop them out and pound them into powder.

Prepare clean dry banana leaves to wrap the cake.

Ms. Bui Thi Lan has been involved in the sticky rice cake making business at Doc Dua for over 15 years. She said that every day she works from 5am to around 11pm. On the busiest days, her family consumes 5kg of sticky rice flour, 1kg of ramie leaves, 1kg of green beans, 3-4kg of coconut pulp, 1kg of sugar and about 20 liters of molasses. With that amount of ingredients, she makes 7-10 cakes a day, each with 100 pairs. According to Ms. Lan, each pair of cakes sells for 2.5 thousand VND, making a profit of 200-300 VND, with a total profit of over 500 thousand VND per day.

Lang Dua sticky rice cake has become familiar and close to the people and students in the commune. So far, Doi Dua hamlet has nearly 13 households specializing in making sticky rice cake, of which 4 households produce professionally, hire workers and pay daily wages.

Old and young people all participate in wrapping cakes.

Making gai cake really brings joy and a stable income. Gai cake of Dua land has a delicious and rich flavor, difficult to confuse with many other types of gai cake. For many years, Gai cake of Dua land has become an indispensable gift for people in the areas of Anh Son, Con Cuong, Tan Ky districts and tourists every time they pass by this place.

However, most of the households making gai cakes are currently spontaneous models. The Resolution of the Party Congress of Anh Son district and Tuong Son commune has oriented the development of gai cake making in Tuong Son into an organized and oriented craft village, contributing to creating jobs for local idle laborers./.

Luong Mai